Study Desk

King Joash didn't remember the kindness that Zechariah's father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, "May the Lord see and demand an account."

When the Arameans saw that Joash had many wounds, they left him. His servants conspired against him, and killed him on his bed, because he had shed the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

He did what was right in the Lord 's sight but not wholeheartedly.

However, he did not put their children to death, because—as it is written in the Law, in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded—"Fathers must not die because of children, and children must not die because of fathers, but each one will die for his own sin."

But if you go with them, do it! Be strong for battle! But God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to make one stumble."

So Amaziah released the division that came to him from Ephraim to go home. But they got very angry with Judah and returned home in a fierce rage.

While he was still speaking to him, the king asked, "Have we made you the king's counselor? Stop, why should you lose your life?" So the prophet stopped, but he said, "I know that God intends to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice."

But Amaziah would not listen, for this turn of events was from God in order to hand them over to their enemies because they went after the gods of Edom.

But when he became strong, he grew arrogant and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord 's sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.

Uzziah, with a firepan in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But when he became enraged with the priests, in the presence of the priests in the Lord 's temple beside the altar of incense, a skin disease broke out on his forehead.

He did what was right in the Lord 's sight as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he didn't enter the Lord 's sanctuary, but the people still behaved corruptly.

A prophet of the Lord named Oded was there. He went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, "Look, the Lord God of your ancestors handed them over to you because of His wrath against Judah, but you slaughtered them in a rage that has reached heaven.

He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him; he said, "Since the gods of the kings of Aram are helping them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me." But they were the downfall of him and of all Israel.

Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah became king in his place.

The couriers traveled from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but the inhabitants laughed at them and mocked them.

But some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—were ritually unclean, yet they had eaten the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah had interceded for them, saying, "May the good Lord provide atonement on behalf of

He has only human strength, but we have Yahweh our God to help us and to fight our battles." So the people relied on the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn't listen.

However, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.